At certain times of the day - at sunrise, and sunset - the outlines of prehistoric fields, barrows and hill-forts in the British landscape may be thrown into relief.
Such 'shadow sites', best seen from above, and captured by an airborne camera, are both examples of, and metaphors for, a particular way of seeing the landscape. At a time of rapid modernisation and urbanisation in mid-twentieth-century Britain, an archaeological vision of the British landscape reassured and enchanted a number of writers, artists, photographers, and film-makers. From John Piper, Eric Ravilious and Shell guide books, to photographs of bomb damage, aerial archaeology, and The Wizard of Oz, Kitty Hauser delves into evocative interpretations of the landscape and
looks at the affinities between photography as a medium to capture traces of the past as well as their absence.
By:
Kitty Hauser (Research Fellow Power Institute Sydney University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 240mm,
Width: 165mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 700g
ISBN: 9780199206322
ISBN 10: 0199206325
Series: Oxford Historical Monographs
Pages: 328
Publication Date: 01 February 2007
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Further / Higher Education
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction The Archaeological Imagination Tracing the Trace: Photography, the Index, and the Limits of Representation Reading Antiquity, Mapping History Revenants in the Landscape: The Discoveries of Aerial Archaeology Recuperating Ruins A Tale of Two Cities Conclusion Appendix: John Piper's 'Papers from Antiquity'
Kitty Hauser is a historian of visual and material culture who has written for publications including the New Left Review, the Burlington Magazine, and the London Review of Books. Previously a research fellowship at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, she has also taught at the London College of Fashion and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. She is currently Research Fellow at the University of Sydney.
Reviews for Shadow Sites: Photography, Archaeology, and the British Landscape 1927-1955
Hauser offers lively, detailed descriptions and analyses, as well as colourful and relevant historical accounts. Pamela Jane Smith, Antiquity
- Winner of History Today Book of the Year 2008.
